Author: Monica Murphy
Series: Dating, #6
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Fake Dating
Release Date: December 1st
Synopsis: Kelsey Phillips is over the dating scene.
All that time and energy perfecting your profile and taking just the right picture and articulating exactly what you’re looking for, only to get the same sleazy propositions? No thanks. She’s doing just fine on her own, so there’s no point in a fruitless hunt for “the one” that doesn’t exist.
Besides, she already has the perfect man in her life. Theo is the type of friend who’s always there for a laugh, a hug, or a drink– and no propositions.
So when he somehow manages to agree to be a groomsman in his ex-fiancée’s wedding to his cousin, the least Kelsey can do is be his date.
But why stop at doing the least?
Pretending to be in a relationship is easy. They already know everything about each other. And it sure isn’t hard to fake attraction to a guy as gorgeous as Theo. Soon enough, the only pretense left is that they haven’t fallen for each other for real… and the very small matter of the secret Kelsey’s been keeping. Can a fake relationship survive this real revelation?
Review: Give me a ‘friends to lovers’ with ‘fake dating’ romance any day and I am sold. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I started Wedding Date by Monica Murphy, but the blurb says enough. As my first Monica Murphy romance, I was excited. And then I started reading and everything about Kelsey and Theo won me over completely. I absolutely adored this book. Sure, there were some things that didn’t work for me, but for the most part? It gets every bit of my love.
As is the case with friends to lovers in romance, you can’t help but root for these characters the minute they have their first on-page interaction. Kelsey and Theo became friends in the most unusual of ways, but somehow that’s what seems to make things work for them. I love that their friendship was born out of a complicated blind date, but that it is still a really strong friendship. These are the kind of friends who can lean on each other, but also not share everything in the world with each other. Kelsey has her girl group, which is made up of the heroines from the other books in the series, and she’s got Theo.
“This woman is turning me inside out. I don’t know if I like it.”
Their friendship is brilliant though, it’s fun and it’s light and they know each other well enough to understand the other person. There’s a lot of underlying feelings that have accumulated over time and that’s what propels everything to the front. I love the sass and the banter between the two, because it feels so real and natural. It’s always great to have that kind of chemistry between friends, even if it doesn’t turn into anything else later on. But with Theo and Kelsey, it most certainly does. Their friendship chemistry turns into searing hot relationship chemistry and you are seriously not ready for just how hot it’s going to get.
Kelsey was such an interesting character, with a cloudy history that she’s kept under wraps from all her friends. She’s always been the pretty girl in the group that guys just want to sleep with and girls want to avoid, so she keeps things simple with her friends group. I love how she sees herself too, because to accept that ‘yes I am beautiful, but no, I will not use it to my advantage’ is a pretty awesome trait. Did I wish we got more about Kelsey’s family and personal life? Sure, but at the same time, you can see how much that part of her life doesn’t appeal to her at all. If anything, she just wants to erase it from her past.
In comparison, Theo has a big family and a big life. He’s got a whole bunch of siblings and great parents and it’s all hunky dory. I love the Crawford family, they’re so much fun! I hope we get their stories, because there’s just so much scope. Theo’s got an important job and he’s damn good at it. He makes enough money to live a good life, he’s a good guy and the only blemish in his life is his ex-girlfriend. The very same one who cheated on him and is now getting married to his cousin. And Theo happens to be part of the wedding party and needs a date.
“The woman owns her sexuality like no one else I’ve ever been with, and it is seriously the hottest thing alive. She goes after what she wants, and she takes it.”
Like I mentioned before, the chemistry is off the charts! Kelsey is incredibly comfortable in her body and her sexuality and she’s open about what she wants and how she’s going to get it. I love that she keeps surprising Theo with her attitude towards sex, but also I love how desperately he wants her too. The shift from friends to more was a little too fast for my liking, but once they got down to actually having sex, I was just desperate for more!
All in all, Wedding Date is fun, it’s got a good amount of angst, it’s got great characters and a whole heap of supporting characters that you can love. It also reminds me that I need to go back and read the rest of the books in the series, because I am now officially a Monica Murphy fan!
Thanks to Monica Murphy and Valentine PR for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
anna reads here 